S.A.'s homicide rate is up 22% this year

Updated 11:37 am, Sunday, August 26, 2012

Irene Solis, whose son, Isaac Champion, was killed in an incident classified as "justified homicide," holds a portrait of him with his daughter, Channel, on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012.

Irene Solis, whose son, Isaac Champion, was killed in an incident classified as "justified homicide," holds a portrait of him with his daughter, Channel, on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012.

Photo: Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News

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Isaac Champion, 20, (but 18 in this 2/19/10 booking photo) killed around 12:30 a.m. today, 4/9/12, in a shooting at his girlfriend's house in the 100 block of Terrell Avenue (106 Terrell Ave) after he refused to leave the house and reportedly threatened one of the girlfriend's female friends who struggled with him over a gun and shot him.

Isaac Champion, 20, (but 18 in this 2/19/10 booking photo) killed around 12:30 a.m. today, 4/9/12, in a shooting at his girlfriend's house in the 100 block of Terrell Avenue (106 Terrell Ave) after he refused

Santa Hernandez holds a picture of her son Mario Soto, Jr. (left) and her grandson Mario Soto III on the front porch of her West Side home Friday April 13, 2012. Hernandez's son was shot and killed by police last Wednesday afternoon at the Days Inn near Laredo street and Interstate-35. Police say the man was a suspect in six robberies.

Santa Hernandez holds a picture of her son Mario Soto, Jr. (left) and her grandson Mario Soto III on the front porch of her West Side home Friday April 13, 2012. Hernandez's son was shot and killed by police

This is a drivers license photo of Gregory Clark Miller, 52, who was shot and killed by a San Antonio police officer on 4/4/12 when they responded to Miller's house at 11627 Sandman St at 1:45 a.m.

This is a drivers license photo of Gregory Clark Miller, 52, who was shot and killed by a San Antonio police officer on 4/4/12 when they responded to Miller's house at 11627 Sandman St at 1:45 a.m.

Photo: COURTESY PHOTO

S.A.'s homicide rate is up 22% this year

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As the number of homicides has climbed 22 percent this year in San Antonio, the death of Isaac Champion in April is one of six that was ruled “justified.”

He and his girlfriend had been fighting when she called the police, but he left before they arrived so he could cool off, his mother said.

When he returned, the fight resumed and the woman sent a text message to a friend, Krystan Rios, asking for help, according to a police report.

It was Rios, 21, who would fatally shot Champion, 20, after the two struggled over a gun in his waistband.

She told police the shooting was an act of self-defense: she was in fear for her life, she said.

Rios was not charged in connection with Champion's death, and the incident is one of six justifiable homicides from the first half of 2012. He leaves behind a 1-year-old daughter, Channel.

“They closed the case and let her walk away,” said Champion's mother, Irene Solis, 38. “Everybody remembers his laugh, his smile. His daughter was his pride and joy — he loved that little girl to death.”

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Sixty one people were killed in San Antonio between January and June 30 in incidents classified as murders, manslaughters, justified homicides and officer-involved homicides.

That's up from 50 in the same period last year, based on statistics compiled by the San Antonio Express-News, following what experts say is a national pattern.

“The thing that concerns me is that if there were a particular location or a group of individuals causing a lot of murders, creating a pattern, those are easier to predict and easier to strategize on stopping,” Police Chief William McManus said. “The trend is that there is no trend — (homicides) are pretty much all over the map this year.”

Since July 1, SAPD investigated another 11 homicides in the city, one of which involved a police officer who killed a suspect.

San Antonio, like the rest of the U.S., has seen a rise in officer-involved killings as well as homicides categorized as “justified,” under the years-old “Castle Doctrine” that allows people to use deadly force in certain circumstances.

All of the SAPD officers involved in shootings before July 1 have been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Bexar County district attorney's office, McManus said. In all of last year, there were no officer-involved fatalities.

“Nationally, we've seen an alarming trend where suspects are no longer giving up, they're starting to attack,” said Mike Helle, president of the local police union. “Statistically, we're seeing more actors who are taking out violence against police officers.”

Killings in the U.S. were down 2 percent in 2011,according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting statistics, which omit justifiable homicides from annual totals. But after the first half of this year, experts say the U.S. is experiencing a rise in slayings.

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Homicide map:Homicides in San Antonio through June 30

One pattern criminologists have seen is more justified slayings in Texas and other states whose laws allow citizens to arm themselves to protect their life or property if faced with a deadly threat. “People are not being prosecuted when they've acted in self-defense, and that may be giving people more confidence to use deadly force when they have to,” said Michael L. Seigel, director of the Criminal Justice Center at the University of Florida.

Ruled justified

In 2007, state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, authored changes to Senate Bill 378 to allow people to defend themselves at any location where they have a right to be.

Texas' amended law lacks a clause that encouraged restraint, similar to other “Stand Your Ground” laws in states including Florida, where Trayvon Martin, 17, was fatally shot by a neighborhood watchman in February.

“The ‘duty to retreat' premise is that life should be saved at all costs, even if the life you're saving is someone who's attacking you,” Seigel said. “Under ‘Stand Your Ground,' citizens are able to protect themselves from thugs on that street; if that protection requires deadly force, that's OK, as long as in fact it was in self-defense.”

Of the six justified homicides between Jan. 1 and July 1 this year, two took place during a home invasion or attempted burglary; two were a result of a fight or gunfire exchange; and two others were domestic disputes.

Five of the incidents took place after Martin's death, which some experts say may have affected Americans' behavior.

In May, Keith Harp, 68, fatally shot a man who had forced his way inside Harp's home in the 8000 block of West Hausman Road.

Harp told police he shot Erick Whitaker once as he came into the house, but Whitaker reportedly continued to approach Harp, who then fired twice more.

Whitaker, 19, died at the scene.

This month, a man who answered the phone number listed for Harp replied, “Who's asking?” when a reporter called for him.

The reporter, who had phoned Harp's home from his front gate, requested an interview for a story on justified homicides.

“Ma'am, you back your car out of that driveway right now or I will call the police,” he said. Moments later, a man emerged from the home and watched as the reporter drove away.

Champion, 20, was a gang member in his teens and already had a criminal history of assaults when he was killed by Rios in the 100 block of Terrell Avenue.

“Once I saw the gun, I just went at him to take the gun away,” Rios told police. “I don't know how I took it away but I did, and when I did, I shot right at him.”

Champion was shot five times.

“There is no way, in my eyes, that she can claim self-defense after shooting him that many times,” Solis said. “Why didn't she get away? Why would she stay there and argue with him? I don't think that she should have gotten away with murder.”

McManus said that while SAPD investigates justified homicides, too, he doesn't pay as much attention to them as he does the rest of the city's homicides.

“That law has been on the books in Texas prior to the Martin case, and I just think a lot of people are exercising their legal rights to defend their property,” he said. “I'm more concerned with the murders than the justified ones.”

Armed and dangerous

It's understandable that, after the law changed to allow lethal action if necessary, more citizens armed themselves.

From 2007 to the end of 2011, new concealed handgun licenses increased by more than 45 percent in San Antonio and 39 percent statewide, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Criminologists say this increase has also led to more officer-involved shootings, since suspects are more likely to be armed.

“Anecdotally, it does seem that it's been more violent for police officers, whether it's armed attacks, multiple murders or just resisting and fighting,” said Bill Johnson, the executive director of the Virginia-based National Association of Police Organizations. “Suddenly, walking up to a traffic stop can become a violent encounter. I think it's a trend.”

All five people shot by police before July 1 were armed.

Two of the men slain by police this year were suicidal.

Javier Torres was killed in March after he fired a gun at officers; in June, Derrick Smith was fatally shot after he approached police while refusing to drop a screwdriver, then ripped out prongs of an officer's deployed Taser.

Two others died after police were called to investigate family disturbances. On April 4, Gregory Clark Miller was shot after he refused to drop a machete while approaching police, and in May, Gilbert Luis was killed while walking towards officers wielding a large kitchen knife.

On April 11, Mario Soto was fatally shot after he fired a gun at undercover police trying to arrest him on felony robbery warrants.

McManus said the rise in officer-involved homicides this year doesn't mean the SAPD is trigger-happy.

“The question is always asked, ‘Why is it that we've gone so long without one?' The answer is, it all depends on what the officers encounter when they're on the streets,” McManus said.

Curious criminologists﻿﻿﻿

Miller said he and his colleagues have been watching with curiosity the overall rise in homicides, but so far, explanations are mere theories.

“This is a fairly recent phenomenon,” he said. “But this has been something that's been obvious as it's developed, almost in real-time. It's been interesting how apolitical a topic this has been.”

Seigel researched how the laws have affected homicide rates across the country, and found that justified homicides, including officer-involved incidents and those involving civilians, are on the rise.

“Our studies are showing that in general, in states where the law hadn't changed in five or six years, we're generally not seeing an increase in homicides,” he said. “In Texas, there definitely has been an increasing trend of homicides classified as justifiable.”

From 2007 to 2010, the rate of justified homicides in Texas nearly doubled, Seigel said.

“Since then, it's kind of stayed at this elevated rate,” he said. “You could have predicted this outcome.”